The association between perinatal testosterone concentration and early vocabulary development: A prospective cohort study

Adult digit ratio (2D:4D) is not related to umbilical cord androgen or estrogen concentrations, their ratios or net bioactivity

“…However, there is increasing recognition from experimental studies that the effect of prenatal sex steroid exposure on postnatal development is not restricted to early fetal development and that sex steroid levels in the final trimester also contribute to fetal development [41,56]. Furthermore, evidence from studies examining relationships between umbilical cord sex steroids and subsequent development [10,19,22,23,39,55], indicate that these sex steroid concentrations are informative markers for childhood development. Currently, umbilical cord blood is the only practical means of assessing fetal sex steroid concentrations during uncomplicated pregnancies [16,18,44].…”

“…First, Lutchmaya and colleagues analysed males and females together, and although sex was controlled in the analyses, there is emerging evidence that males and females respond differently to circulating sex steroid concentrations [53], as evidenced by different associations identified for males and females [19,25,27,39,55]. Therefore, males and females should be separated in association analyses.…”

“…Higher concentrations of cord serum testosterone were associated with reduced vocabulary in males at 2 and 5 years of age [10,19], increased risk of language delay in early childhood [55], reduced spatial ability in 6 year old females [23], and left hemisphere lateralisation of language in adult males [20]. Sex differences in behaviour have also been associated with cord testosterone concentrations.…”

Subtle left-right asymmetry of gene expression profiles in embryonic and foetal human brains

“…Table 2). Dopamine is very important in the functioning of the basal ganglia 39 , while steroid hormone pathways have long been studied in relation to variability in brain anatomical laterality 40,41 , handedness 42,43 , and language-related development 44,45 . The transcriptional asymmetries which we observed in these developing subcortical structures may therefore play important roles in creating broader functional lateralities for motor and language functions, also involving the cerebral cortex.…”

Prenatal testosterone exposure is related to sexually dimorphic facial morphology in adulthood

“…However, there is increasing recognition that there may be multiple sensitive periods, and animal studies have found that postnatal development may be affected by hormones at different times throughout prenatal development [25]. Human studies have also started to link sex steroids from umbilical cord blood to a range of childhood behaviours, including language development [26,27], internalizing and externalizing behaviours [28], and spatial abilities [29]. To date, no studies have examined the relationship between cord blood testosterone and human physical development.…”